Sakae rejects allegations in letter of complaint sent by shareholder

SAKAE Holdings on Friday said that it has rejected allegations made by a shareholder of the company which were sent via a letter of complaint in June.

According to Sakae, there were a number of allegations against its chairman Douglas Foo in relation to alleged personal interests in Gryphon Real Estate Investment Corporation and ERC Holdings; the issuance of shares in the company's associate company, Griffin Real Estate Investment Holdings (GRIEH), to ERC Holdings and the company; and the authorisation and approval of a loan from GREIH to ERC Unicampus (in which Mr Foo is an indirect shareholder) allegedly without the authority of the board.

An allegation was also made that the company did not announce the issuance of shares in GREIH to the company.

Sakae said that the AC (audit committee) has conducted a thorough investigation into the matters set out in the shareholder's letter of complaint as part of a process which was conducted under privilege and confidentiality.

Having investigated the matter, the AC has arrived at the view that the shareholder's allegations are "not borne out by the evidence". In arriving at these views, the AC also took into consideration, among other things, that a number of the allegations that has been made by the shareholder were raised at the trial in the High Court earlier this year and that Mr Foo gave evidence on oath on several of these allegations at the trial and the person or persons who could have challenged Mr Foo's evidence chose not to give evidence and be cross-examined, Sakae said.

The High Court has not yet at this time handed down its decision in the trial, Sakae added.

The AC has responded to the shareholder to inform him of the AC's views. Sakae noted that it will continue to keep all shareholders updated of any material developments.